Christopher Nolan has insisted that he has no intention of making another Batman movie.

The director always billed this year’s The Dark Knight Rises as the third and final instalment in his well-received Batman trilogy. However, some fans have speculated that the film’s ambiguous ending leaves the door open for the story to continue in some form.

When asked about this during an extensive interview with Film Comment, Nolan replied: “For me, The Dark Knight Rises is specifically and definitely the end of the Batman story as I wanted to tell it, and the open-ended nature of the film is simply a very important thematic idea that we wanted to get into the movie, which is that Batman is a symbol.”

Explaining the idea of Batman as a symbol, Nolan continued: “The only way that I could find to make a credible characterisation of a guy transforming himself into Batman is if it was as a necessary symbol, and he saw himself as a catalyst for change and therefore it was a temporary process, maybe a five-year plan that would be enforced for symbolically encouraging the good of Gotham to take back their city. To me, for that mission to succeed, it has to end, so this is the ending for me…”

Meanwhile, The Dark Knight Rises will be available to buy on Blu-ray and digital download from Monday (December 3). Since opening in cinemas back in July, the film has taken over $1.08 billion (£673 million) at the box office worldwide, making it Nolan’s most successful Batman movie and the seventh biggest film ever.